In times of Fascism, Art is Even More Important!

            I really liked what Cheryl Boone Isaacs, President of the Academy of Motion Pictures of Arts and Sciences said last night at the Oscar ceremony:

"Each and every one of us knows there are some empty chairs in this room, which have made academy artists activists," Boone Isaacs said. "There's a struggle globally today about artistic freedom that feels more urgent now more than any time since the 1950s. Art has no borders and doesn't belong to a single faith. The power of art is that it transcends all of these things and strong societies don't censor art. They celebrate it."" 

Here's the ceiling of The Getty.  I went to Los Angeles about 10 months ago to visit my friend Lindsey Best and also managed to see two different Robert Mapplethorpe exhibits with only a small fraction of overlap.  I had just finished Patti Smith's autobiography entitled Just Kids before flying out for the visit. 

I have to be honest, Robert Mapplethorpe's doesn't completely reach me...not even as an artist but as a woman.  I don't think he really understood women at all aside from Patti Smith.  Even Mapplethorpe's photos of Lisa Lyon seem cold to me on an emotional level. 

 But, at the same time, reading about what he went through as an artist who was gay in the 1960-1980s and the threats of pure censorship were really eye opening.  Today, with all the threats against trans students and to Gavin's Law, it seems history is indeed repeating itself. 

 And, though I am not really one to want to view explicit photographs showing bondage, I still want to live in a world where artistic expression is possible and not censored by politics or fundamentalism.  I also strongly believe that one should expose oneself to challenging art that doesn't feel good, happy, or safe but questions the very notion of identity.  Who are we really as people?  If we can't answer this question, we truly have no hope of resisting fascism.

**All photographs are copyrighted.  Please don't use without permission**

Taken on: April 17, 2016

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/18.0, 1/160 sec, 15mm, ISO 1600 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens:	EF15mm f/2.8 Fisheye
Aperture:	f/18.0
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	15mm
ISO:	1600
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)
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